Red Ribbons in Her Hair Ch. 03

Even taking her home, seeing her in her bedroom, a precious stone set in beautiful surroundings, had made her more beautiful, more desirable. He could feel her pull; feel the attraction he had for her and knew he couldn't give in to it. She was a witness, a victim and a case. He had to think of the case.

So after taking measurements by how tall she thought the man had been after seeing Gabe outside her bedroom window, he'd left her his card, writing his home number on the back, and had gone back to work, to immerse himself in the case.

Now here he was again, feeling that pull, sensing she felt the same and not being able to act upon it. He put her back in the patrol car, called over the officer and gave him instructions and then went back to work. He had other interviews and a family to call.

* * * *

Kaylee stared at the dull gray walls of the small room she'd been left in. It was cold, dingy and very unwelcoming. She had her choice; she could stare at the dull gray walls, at the reflection of herself in the undoubtedly two way mirror, or into the cup of rapidly cooling grayish sludge the officer had dropped into her hands before leaving her here.

None of the three were very welcoming.

She kept seeing Devon's face, that garish makeup, those too tight clothes. And worse, the nasty swelled bruises that circled her neck. She thought back to that last day, how she had told her roommates so vehemently that she wished Devon would die or move to Tucson, one or the other, so she'd be out of Kaylee's hair. How could she have been so crass?

She glanced down at the watch that circled her slim wrist. Time seemed to be moving almost backwards, the hour she'd spent in this room felt like days. It must make for a fantastic interviewing technique. Leave the poor fool in this tiny space and let them stew until they think they'll go mad, than come in. She felt like she'd confess to Devon's murder herself just to get out of this room.

The door clicked open just as she was about to stand up and pace the floor again.

"Sorry I had to leave you in here so long," Gabe said, kicking the door closed behind him. In his hands he held two cups of steaming brew that held the aroma of real coffee and not the scorched and bitter smell of the diesel oil that was in the cup she'd nursed for an hour. "It couldn't be avoided."

"Thanks," she said, taking the cup from his hand. She took a sip and sighed. He'd even fixed it the way she liked, two sugars, one cream. "This is good."

"Yeah, I swiped it from Vice. They have the good coffee maker. I think they confiscated it at one of their raids."

She smiled as he had hoped she would. It was just a slight twist of her full lips, but it was there. He spun the chair across from her around, straddling it, leaning his elbows on the back. He pulled a small cassette recorder from his pocket, setting it on the desk. "I need to record this if you don't mind."

Kaylee stared at the tape recorder, her mind reeling. It was like a nightmare out of some bad cop drama on TV. "No, I guess not."

"Thanks," he said, pushing the record buttons. In a neutral voice he gave the date and time, his own name and hers. "Now Kaylee, I'm going to read you your rights." He spoke quickly before she could interrupt or get upset. "It's for your protection as well as our own. It doesn't mean you're under arrest or even under suspicion for anything. Okay?"

She got visibly upset, her hands wrapping around the Styrofoam cup shaking. She nodded her head, closing her eyes for a second as she listened to what he was saying.

"Now, do you understand those rights as I've just explained them to you?"

"Yes," she said, loud enough for the recorder to hear her.

"Good." He smiled, trying to be encouraging. "Now, Kaylee, can you take me through what happened this morning?"

Kaylee took another small sip of the coffee and sighed, feeling her head throbbing more as the caffeine hit her system. "Okay. Where do you want me to start?"

"You had to work this morning, opening with Devon..." he prompted.

"Yeah, and after she read me the riot act for being late the other day, I didn't want to be late this morning. I got to the restaurant around 6:30 a.m. and the first thing I noticed was the back door was blocked open." She took another sip and then sat the cup down, picking at the rim of it.

"That's unusual?"

"Devon is a stickler for the rules. We aren't supposed to leave that open for any reason at all. It's too close to the manager's office where the safe is and it's also a health department law. It could cause food contamination from germs, that kind of thing because the dumpster is so close to the back door." She looked up at Gabe. "I knew something was wrong right then. Devon would never, not in a million years, leave that door opened."

"Okay, then what happened."

"I was scared, terrified actually. After the gift in my car and all of that, I haven't been able to quit being scared. I made myself walk in. I called her name two or three times and when she didn't answer, I went to her office. And I found...that," she finished, raising her hand to her mouth and pressing hard. "He meant for me to find her, he meant for me to, just like he had with the gift. Did he do this with the others, leave them gifts?" A tear streaked down her cheek and she wiped it away angrily.

"No, Kaylee, he didn't. That's why we're not so sure it's him. It could be a copycat, someone who's read the paper and then became fixated on you." He reached out and squeezed her hand gently, encouragingly. "Now, once more, when you left for work this morning, you drove in the way you normally do?"

"Yeah, I drove the same route I always do. I didn't stop anywhere because I wanted to be there early so Devon wouldn't have anything to get on my case about."

"You didn't see anyone?"

"No, no one, not on the drive in, not once I got to the parking lot. But I was more focused on the door then anything else." She felt a sting on her fingers, a drop of coffee falling from the lip of her cup that she had ripped apart, landing upon the back of her hand. She rubbed it off with her thumb. "I thought about it after I saw her, he could still be in the restaurant, or waiting outside for me to come out."

"So why didn't you stay put?" Gabe forced himself to sit up a little in his chair. He wanted to lean forward and lace his hand with hers, do what he could to help her through this ordeal. He knew the sudden shock of finding a dead body, how it felt to realize the person in front of him was dead. The icy feeling of shock that crept through, taking your breath. Horror, especially at the gruesomeness of murder, and the way it affected someone and kept affecting them no matter what was done was almost second nature in his job.

"I couldn't stay in that room with her," Kaylee said, her voice full of shame. "I couldn't wait there for the cops, Gabe. I just couldn't."

"It's okay, Kaylee. No one expected you to stay in there. I know a lot of new homicide detectives who can't handle death even half as well as you did." He wrote a few notes in his notebook, nothing probative, just taking enough time to get himself under control once more.

"Okay, now take me back, the last time you saw Devon before today. You said she read you the riot act. What was that about?"

"It was the morning that I called you the first time. I was late coming in because of the call, the one I made to talk to you. Devon railed on me about being late all the time. She waited until I was coming back off a break and started in on me just outside of the kitchen." Kaylee closed her eyes, seeing the scene in her mind as clear as a bell. "She was yelling at me and I looked around because I was embarrassed that she was doing this in front of everyone. I thought I saw this guy, he looked really interested in what she was saying, but when I looked again, he was gone."

"What did this guy look like?" Gabe sat forward, his pen poised above his notepad.

"I... I'm not sure. I just caught a quick look at him. You know, like out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to look again, he was gone." Kaylee folded her hands together in front of her trying to control their shaking.

Gabe sat down his pen with a quiet sigh. It was never easy. "Kaylee, I want you to close your eyes for me, okay, just relax and close your eyes." He waited, hearing her soft exhale in the muted silence of the interrogation room. She closed her eyes, her features softening slightly and he couldn't help but see the deep dark shadows around her eyes, the lines near her mouth that told him just how scared and stressed she actually was.

But there wasn't anything he could do about that but capture this creep and put him away.

"Okay, Kaylee, now I want you to listen to the sound of my voice. You know you are safe here, no one can harm you. I want you to think back on that last day, when Devon was yelling at you. I want you to look around you, see the kitchen staff working, the other waitresses. There are tables of people waiting to be served. See them?"

Kaylee let herself be drawn into the sound of his voice, welcoming the cool deep tones of it like a lifeline to take her away from the image of Devon in that grisly little office. She let his voice create the pictures, seeing the tables and the kitchen staff, Tina breezed by, a large tray up on her shoulder and a look of sympathy upon her face as Devon's voice seemed to buzz annoyingly in her ear. Then she forced herself to turn, to see the man sitting in the first booth, to study him though every bone in her body cringed away from it.

"Now Kaylee, turn and look at him. He can't hurt you now. You are safe, here at the police station and with me. Look at him and tell me what you see."

"He has blue eyes, pale blue, and kind of eerie. He's looking at Devon, not at me though."

"What about the rest of him?" Gabe asked, watching as she squinted as if trying to focus the image clearer.

"Dark hair, I don't know. Brown, I guess. It's all fuzzy except for his eyes." Kaylee opened her own, frustration and anger battling inside of her. "I can't see him. All I see are his eyes and then Devon, staring at me, dead."

Gabe felt his heart go out to the poor girl. It was hell being in the position she was in, but he couldn't afford to give out sympathy now. He had a man out there killing women and this one girl might be the answer to catch him.

"I'm going to have you put under police protection. We'll have you escorted to a safe house and someone will be with you twenty-four hours a day until we catch him."

Her head was shaking before he even finished the sentence. "No. Gabe, there is no way I'm going into hiding."

"Kaylee, think about what would be safest for you. We can even bring your friends along too if you'd like and are worried about them. I just want you taken care of." Gabe reached out and covered her folded hands with one of his own.

"Then you do it."

"What?" he asked, shaking his head at her sudden change of heart.

"I'll stay with you," she said simply."

His hand tightened on top of hers for a single moment before he leaned back in his chair, staring at her in consternation. "I can't baby-sit you, Kaylee. I have to solve this case."

"And who better than to have me around then you? He seems to be drawn to me, Gabe." She sat forward, more relaxed now that she had made up her mind than she'd been since she'd first pulled into the driveway of the restaurant this morning. "You said it yourself, I need protection from him. I want you."

"Kaylee..." Gabe stuttered to a halt, incredulous. He stood, staring into the two way mirror where he could see his reflection. But he knew his boss, Captain Tony Morales was on the other side, listening and watching his interview with Kaylee. And probably taping it as well.

"This isn't the only case on my desk, Kaylee. It's the most important right now, but not the only one. You'll be safe with the team that my boss picks out for you. No one will no where you are, not even me." He turned and stared at the beautiful brunette. "It's important that we work with you and that you work with us, Kaylee. You know that. So this guy doesn't have the chance to hurt anyone else.

"Fine," Kaylee sighed, giving up. She was tired and edgy, too much caffeine and too many nerves combining to make her feel fragile and restless. "I'll go with them, Gabe." She couldn't help the hurt that seeped into her tone, unfair as it may be. He was right, she wasn't his only case and she was making it too personal, but dammit, it was personal. How much more personal could it get then to have some sicko kill off your boss in hopes to make you happy?

Gabe walked over and squeezed her shoulder. "You're doing the right thing, Kaylee. Just relax and I'll get it set up for you now. We can send someone over to your place to pack you some clothes and personal things." He smiled at her and left the room.

If it was the right thing to do, it certainly didn't feel that way. Her stomach was tied in knots, churning from the coffee and stress. Her temples were throbbing in time to her pulse, making her feel even sicker than before. She pushed the cup aside, crossing her arms on the scarred surface of the table and resting her head on them, closing her eyes against the bright fluorescents.

That was the picture that greeted Gabe when he walked in. She seemed so tiny, so defeated in the too bare room. He wanted to sweep her up, carry her away like some knight of old and fix all her problems. But he couldn't, he just couldn't keep an eye on her and work the case at the same time. He needed her safe somewhere, out of sight of the killer, out of harm's way.

Kaylee felt him more than heard him come into the room. She lifted her head, working up a tired smile. "Everything ready?"

"Yep." He smiled back. "I've got some of the best in the area going to be watching out for you, Kaylee. You'll have someone with you twenty-four hours until we round him up." He reached over, taking her elbow and helped her to her feet. "It shouldn't take long and then, when this is over, you can go home and get on with your life."

He stood close, too close, Kaylee thought as she inhaled his intriguing scent. She had to fight herself to not turn and press her face in his chest, to ask him to wrap his arms around her, to hold her tightly against him until she could finally feel safe again.

Instead, she worked up a smile, weak as it might be, and walked out of the room.